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Incident angle dependence of absorption enhancement in plasmonic solar cells

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Abstract

The enhancement of solar light absorption in a solar cell is a challenging issue. In this article we show that in a thin-film silicon solar cell covered with silver nanoparticles on the surface, the absorption of the incident light can be particularly enhanced at certain angular range and wavelength. Such absorption enhancements are associated with the resonant localized surface plasmon (LSP) modes of the nanoparticle and nanoparticle-induced local Fabry-Perot (FP) modes. Our simulations suggest that the spectral shift of the LSP modes due to changing the incident angle leads to an incident-angle-sensitive absorption enhancement of the solar cell. Selecting the incident angle in a well-defined range of 0° to 35° is essential for optimizing the performance of a thin-film solar cell.

©2011 Optical Society of America

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Figures (7)

Fig. 1
Fig. 1 (a) Dipole and quadrupole mode resonant wavelengths as a function of the silver nanosphere size. (b) (c) Electric field profile of the dipole mode (b) or Quadrupole mode (c) of a 200nm-diamater spherical silver nanoparticle obtained through FEM simulation.
Fig. 2
Fig. 2 Sketch of the simulation configuration of a single silver nanoparticle on top of an a-Si solar cell.
Fig. 3
Fig. 3 (a) (b) Absorption (W/m) in a 100 nm (a) or 150 nm (b) thick bare a-Si substrate or a-Si substrate coated with an 80 nm silver film under a normally incident TM plane wave and the corresponding absorption enhancement. Black curve: absorption in the bare a-Si substrate. Red curve: absorption in the a-Si substrate coated with an 80 nm silver film. Blue curve: absorption enhancement by adding the silver film. (c) (d) Absorption enhancement in a 100 nm (c) or 150 nm (d) thick a-Si substrate with a single on-top spherical silver particle of diameters D (nm) under a normally incident TM plane wave.
Fig. 4
Fig. 4 Absorption enhancement for 100 nm thick and 150 nm thick a-Si substrates as the surface coverage of the 200 nm diameter nanoparticles increases from 6.67% to 20%.
Fig. 5
Fig. 5 Absorption enhancement mappings for a-Si solar cells of thickness d (nm) covered by a single silver nanoparticle of diameter D (nm) under TM incidence with α ranging from 0° to 45°. (a) d = 100 nm, D = 150 nm. (b) d = 100 nm, D = 200 nm. (c) d = 150 nm, D = 150 nm. ((d) d = 150 nm, D = 200 nm.
Fig. 6
Fig. 6 The spectral positions of the dipole mode enhancement peak of the silver nanoparticle on a 100 nm thick a-Si solar cell as a function of the incident angle.
Fig. 7
Fig. 7 (a) Normalized absorption enhancement in a 100nm thick a-Si solar cell with on-top silver nanoparticles of diameters D = 200nm or 150nm at a surface coverage of 6.67%, calculated by integrating the absorption enhancements over the AM 1.5G solar spectrum. (b) Normalized absorption enhancement in a 150nm thick a-Si solar cell.

Equations (7)

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ε ( ω ) ε = l + 1 l
Q a b s = 8 π a λ Im ( ε ( ω ) 1 ε ( ω ) + 2 )
Q s c a = 128 π 4 a 4 3 λ 4 | ε ( ω ) 1 ε ( ω ) + 2 | 2
Q a b s = 8 π a λ Im [ ε ( ω ) 1 ε ( ω ) + 2 + π 2 a 2 3 λ 2 ε ( ω ) 1 ε ( ω ) + 1.5 + 2 π 2 a 2 15 λ 2 ( ε ( ω ) 1 ) ]
Q s c a = 128 π 4 a 4 3 λ 4 [ | ε ( ω ) 1 ε ( ω ) + 2 | 2 + π 4 a 4 15 λ 4 | ε ( ω ) 1 ε ( ω ) + 1.5 | 2 + 4 π 4 a 4 225 λ 4 | ε ( ω ) 1 | 2 ]
λ k = 2 n d k
E = k 2 e i k r r × ( r × p ) r 3 + e i k r ( 1 - i k r ) [ r 2 p - 3 r ( r × p ) ] r 5
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